The 183 series trains operated by JR-West were actually DC-only conversions of 485 series trainsets. They were used on limited-express services from Kyoto and Shin-Osaka to the northern coast of Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures, as part of the "Kitakinki Big X Network". These trainsets were gradually phased out from spring 2011 in favor of the new 287 series, and completely removed from regular scheduled services by the start of the revised timetable on 16 March 2013.

1.
KiHa 189 series
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The KiHa 189 series is a diesel multiple unit train type operated by West Japan Railway Company on Hamakaze limited express services between Osaka and Tottori in Japan since November 2010. Hamakaze Biwako Express Trains are formed as 3-car sets, as shown below, the trains are all standard-class, with a total seating capacity of 156 passengers per 3-car set. Seating is in standard 2+2 abreast configuration with a pitch of 970 mm. The first three-car set was delivered from Niigata Transys to Fukui Depot on 19 March 2010, the trains entered revenue service from 7 November 2010

2.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries
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/kaʊ. əˈsɑːki/ is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of motorcycles, heavy equipment, aerospace and defense equipment, rolling stock and ships. It is also active in the production of industrial robots, gas turbines, boilers, the company is named after its founder Shōzō Kawasaki, and has dual headquarters in Chūō-ku, Kobe and Minato, Tokyo. KHI is known as one of the three major industrial manufacturers of Japan, alongside Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and IHI. Prior to World War II, KHI was part of the Kobe Kawasaki zaibatsu, after the war, KHI became part of the DKB Group. Kawasaki is active in a range of the aerospace industry. It is currently developing two large, next-generation aircraft, the XP-1 maritime patrol airplane and the XC-2 transport aircraft, Kawasaki also builds helicopters, including the BK117, jointly developed and manufactured with MBB. It also produces the CH-47J / JA helicopter, in the commercial aviation business, the company is involved in the joint international development and production of large passenger aircraft. It is involved in joint development and production of the Boeing 767, Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 with The Boeing Company, and the 170,175,190 and 195 jets with Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica. It is also involved in the joint international development and production of engines for passenger aircraft such as the V2500, the RB211/Trent, the PW4000. Kawasaki also works for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the Company was responsible for the development and production of the payload fairings, payload attach fittings and the construction of the launch complex for the H-II rocket. It continues to provide services for the H-IIA rocket, main products Aircraft Space systems Helicopters Simulators Jet engines Missiles Electronic equipment Kawasaki is Japan’s largest manufacturer of rolling stock. It began operations in the industry in 1906 and it manufactures express and commuter trains, subway cars, freight trains, locomotives, monorails and new transit systems. Kawasaki is also involved in the development and design of high-speed trains such as Japan’s Shinkansen and its product range include high-performance LNG and LPG carriers, container ships, bulk carriers and VLCCs, as well as submarines. The Company is also involved in the development of offshore structures, Kawasaki also produces marine machinery and equipment, including main engines, propulsion systems, steering gears, deck and fishing machinery. It also offers industrial plant engineering from design to sales, main products Industrial plants Industrial robots Aerodynamic machinery Hydraulic equipment Kawasaki is involved in the development of equipment that prevents pollution in a wide range of industries. Among the leading products are fuel gas desulfurization and denitrification systems, the Company also supplies municipal refuse incineration plants, gasification and melting systems, sewage treatment and sludge incineration plants. Kawasaki has also been developing systems that enable a range of municipal and industrial waste to be recovered, recycled. The company offers of storage solutions for LNG, Kawasaki’s portfolio also includes retractable roofs, floors and other giant structures, for construction, Kawasaki produces products such as wheel loaders, tunnel machines, rollers, snowplows and purpose specific loaders

3.
Kinki Sharyo
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The Kinki Sharyo Co. Ltd. is an Osaka, Japan-based manufacturer of railroad vehicles. It is a company of Kintetsu Corporation. In business since 1920 and renamed The Kinki Sharyo Co and they have produced light rail vehicles used by a number of transportation agencies. Kinki Sharyo is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, bostons MBTA Green Line LAs Metro Blue, Expo, and Gold lines. SP1900/1950 EMU, serving the West Rail Line, Ma On Shan Line, extra SP1000/1950 carriages for the Sha Tin to Central Link, ordered 2014. Philippines Manila Light Rail Transit System Singapores Mass Rapid Transit system Egypts Cairo Metro Trans-Australian Express train coaches, alexandria, Egypt trams Kinki Sharyo also produces steel doors, known as the KJ series, for public housing in Japan. Cairo Metro M, N1 and N2 Cars for No.1 Line M, N1, N2 and T Cars for No

4.
Nippon Sharyo
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Nippon Sharyo, Ltd. formed in 1896, is a major rolling stock manufacturer based in Nagoya, Japan. In 1996, it abbreviated its name to 日本車両 Nippon Sharyō and its shortest abbreviation is Nissha 日車. It was a company on Nikkei 225 until 2004. It is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Nagoya Stock Exchange as ticker 7102, in 2008, Central Japan Railway Company became the majority shareholder of the financially struggling Nippon Sharyo making the firm a consolidated subsidiary of JR Central. In July 2012 Nippon Sharyo USA started production in their new facility in Rochelle, shinko Diesel Multiple Units for short distance line like Surabaya-Lamongan, Surabaya-Sidoarjo, etc. The DMU made in 1982 upwards are refurbished with Cummins Engine and this restored steam engine now sits in the foyer of the Yasukuni War Museum in Tokyo. Japanese veterans groups raised funds to return the locomotive from Burma to Japan in 1979, during World War II, Nippon Sharyo, like many major Japanese companies, drew upon prisoner of war labour to maintain war production. The POW camp at Narumi provided Allied POW forced labour for Nippon Sharyo

5.
Japan Transport Engineering Company
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Japan Transport Engineering Company is a manufacturer of heavy rail cars in Japan, formerly known as Tokyu Car Corporation. The company is based in Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, and a member of East Japan Railway Company group, J-TREC manufactures rail vehicles not only for JR East and Tokyu Corporation but for other Japanese operators, including various Japan Railways Group companies and international operators as well. Tokyu Car Corporation, the root of J-TREC, was founded on 23 August 1948, Tokyu Car was a licensee of early-generation stainless-steel commuter EMU train body and related bogie technology from the Budd Company of the United States. Since then, Tokyu Car has specialised in stainless-steel body car technology and it is to be subsequently split into two companies, Tokyu Car Engineering and Keihin Steel Works. Both companies will be subsidiaries of JR East, the remaining parts and machinery manufacturing division will be sold to ShinMaywa Industries. On 2 April 2012, divisions were sold and renamed, with Mitsui Iarnród Éireann/Irish Rail InterCity fleet replacement. Tokyu Car was the supplier for a fleet of high specialist 22000 Class DMUs capable of 160 km/h operation. Coaches were built by Rotem and specialist diesel-hydraulic power packs were built by MTU Friedrichshafen, Japan, Kōyūsha Co. Ltd. pp. 110–113. Japan Transport Engineering Company Tokyu Car Corporation Profile

6.
Japanese National Railways
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Japanese National Railways, abbreviated Kokutetsu or JNR, was the body which operated the national railway network of Japan from 1949 to 1987. As of June 1,1949, the date of establishment of JNR and this figure expanded to 21,421.1 km in 1981, but later reduced to 19,633.6 km as of March 31,1987, the last day of JNR. JNR operated both passenger and freight services, Shinkansen, the worlds first high-speed railway was debuted by JNR in 1964. Unlike railway operation, JNR Bus was not superior to local bus operators. The JR Bus companies are the successors of the bus operation of JNR, a number of unions represented workers at JNR, including the National Railway Workers Union, the National Railway Locomotive Engineers Union, and Doro-Chiba, a break-away group from Doro. Later, the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Transportation, the ministries used the name Japanese Government Railways to refer their network in English. During World War II, many JGR lines were dismantled to supply steel for the war effort, on June 1,1949 by a directive of the U. S. General HQ in Tokyo, JGR was reorganized into Japanese National Railways, JNR enjoyed many successes, including the October 1,1964 inauguration of high-speed Shinkansen service along the Tōkaidō Shinkansen line. However, JNR was not a corporation, its accounting was independent from the national budget. Rural sections without enough passengers began to press its management, pulling it further and further into debt, in 1983, JNR started to close its unprofitable 83 local lines. By 1987, JNRs debt was over ¥27 trillion and the company was spending ¥147 for every ¥100 earned. By an act of the Diet of Japan, on April 1,1987 JNR was privatized and divided into seven companies, six passenger and one freight. Long-term liabilities of JNR were taken over by the JNR Settlement Corporation and that corporation was subsequently disbanded on October 22,1998, and its remaining debts were transferred to the national budgets general accounting. By this time the debt has risen to ¥30 trillion, many lawsuits and labor commission cases were filed over the decades from the privatization in 1987. Kokuro and the National Railway Locomotive Engineers Union, both prominent Japanese railway unions, represented a number of the JNR workers, lists of workers to be employed by the new organizations were drawn up by JNR and given to the JR companies. There was substantial pressure on members to leave their unions, and within a year. Workers who had supported the privatization, or those who left Kokuro, were hired at substantially higher rates than Kokuro members. Around 7,600 workers were transferred in this way, and around 2,000 of them were hired by JR firms and this period ended in April 1990, and 1,047 were dismissed

7.
Resistor
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A resistor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element. In electronic circuits, resistors are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels, to divide voltages, bias active elements, and terminate transmission lines, among other uses. High-power resistors that can dissipate many watts of power as heat may be used as part of motor controls, in power distribution systems. Fixed resistors have resistances that only slightly with temperature, time or operating voltage. Variable resistors can be used to adjust circuit elements, or as sensing devices for heat, light, humidity, force, Resistors are common elements of electrical networks and electronic circuits and are ubiquitous in electronic equipment. Practical resistors as discrete components can be composed of various compounds, Resistors are also implemented within integrated circuits. The electrical function of a resistor is specified by its resistance, the nominal value of the resistance falls within the manufacturing tolerance, indicated on the component. Two typical schematic diagram symbols are as follows, The notation to state a resistors value in a circuit diagram varies, one common scheme is the letter and digit code for resistance values following IEC60062. It avoids using a separator and replaces the decimal separator with a letter loosely associated with SI prefixes corresponding with the parts resistance. For example, 8K2 as part marking code, in a diagram or in a bill of materials indicates a resistor value of 8.2 kΩ. Additional zeros imply a tighter tolerance, for example 15M0 for three significant digits, when the value can be expressed without the need for a prefix, an R is used instead of the decimal separator. For example, 1R2 indicates 1.2 Ω, and 18R indicates 18 Ω, for example, if a 300 ohm resistor is attached across the terminals of a 12 volt battery, then a current of 12 /300 =0.04 amperes flows through that resistor. Practical resistors also have some inductance and capacitance which affect the relation between voltage and current in alternating current circuits, the ohm is the SI unit of electrical resistance, named after Georg Simon Ohm. An ohm is equivalent to a volt per ampere, since resistors are specified and manufactured over a very large range of values, the derived units of milliohm, kilohm, and megohm are also in common usage. The total resistance of resistors connected in series is the sum of their resistance values. R e q = R1 + R2 + ⋯ + R n, the total resistance of resistors connected in parallel is the reciprocal of the sum of the reciprocals of the individual resistors. 1 R e q =1 R1 +1 R2 + ⋯ +1 R n. For example, a 10 ohm resistor connected in parallel with a 5 ohm resistor, a resistor network that is a combination of parallel and series connections can be broken up into smaller parts that are either one or the other

8.
Railway electrification system
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A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electrification has many advantages but requires significant capital expenditure, selection of an electrification system is based on economics of energy supply, maintenance, and capital cost compared to the revenue obtained for freight and passenger traffic. Different systems are used for urban and intercity areas, some electric locomotives can switch to different supply voltages to allow flexibility in operation, Electric railways use electric locomotives to haul passengers or freight in separate cars or electric multiple units, passenger cars with their own motors. Electricity is typically generated in large and relatively efficient generating stations, transmitted to the railway network, some electric railways have their own dedicated generating stations and transmission lines but most purchase power from an electric utility. The railway usually provides its own lines, switches and transformers. Power is supplied to moving trains with a continuous conductor running along the track usually takes one of two forms. The first is a line or catenary wire suspended from poles or towers along the track or from structure or tunnel ceilings. Locomotives or multiple units pick up power from the wire with pantographs on their roofs that press a conductive strip against it with a spring or air pressure. Examples are described later in this article, the second is a third rail mounted at track level and contacted by a sliding pickup shoe. Both overhead wire and third-rail systems usually use the rails as the return conductor. In comparison to the alternative, the diesel engine, electric railways offer substantially better energy efficiency, lower emissions. Electric locomotives are usually quieter, more powerful, and more responsive and they have no local emissions, an important advantage in tunnels and urban areas. Different regions may use different supply voltages and frequencies, complicating through service, the limited clearances available under catenaries may preclude efficient double-stack container service. Possible lethal electric current due to risk of contact with high-voltage contact wires, overhead wires are safer than third rails, but they are often considered unsightly. These are independent of the system used, so that. The permissible range of voltages allowed for the voltages is as stated in standards BS EN50163. These take into account the number of trains drawing current and their distance from the substation, railways must operate at variable speeds. Until the mid 1980s this was only practical with the brush-type DC motor, since such conversion was not well developed in the late 19th century and early 20th century, most early electrified railways used DC and many still do, particularly rapid transit and trams

9.
Current collector
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Those for overhead wires are roof-mounted devices, those for third rails are mounted on the bogies. Typically, they have one or more spring-loaded arms that permit the working engagement with the rail or overhead wire, the collector arm pushes the contact shoe against the contact wire or rail. As the vehicle moves, the shoe slides along the wire or rail to draw the electricity needed to run the vehicles motor. The current collector arms are electrically conductive but mounted insulated on the vehicles roof, an insulated cable connects the collector with the switch, transformer or motor. The steel rails of the act as the electrical return. Electric vehicles that collect their current from an overhead line system use different forms of one- or two-arm pantograph collectors, the current collection device presses against the underside of the lowest wire of an overhead line system, which is called a contact wire. Most overhead supply systems are either DC or single phase AC, three phase AC systems use a pair of overhead wires, and paired trolley poles. Electric railways with third rails, or fourth rails, in tunnels carry collector shoes projecting laterally, or vertically, the contact shoe may slide on top of the third rail, on the bottom or on the side. The side running contact shoe is used against the bars on rubber-tired metros. A vertical contact shoe is used on power supply systems, stud contact systems. A pair of shoes was used on underground current collection systems. The contact shoe on a contact system is called a ski collector. The ski collector moves vertically to accommodate variations in the height of the studs. Contact shoes may also be used on overhead conductor rails, on bars or on trolley wires. Most railways use three rails, while the London Underground uses four rails

10.
Railway brake
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Brakes are used on the cars of railway trains to enable deceleration, control acceleration or to keep them standing when parked. Clasp brakes are one type of historically used on trains. In the earliest days of railways, braking technology was primitive, some railways fitted a special deep-noted brake whistle to locomotives to indicate to the porters the necessity to apply the brakes. All the brakes at this stage of development were applied by operation of a screw and linkage to brake blocks applied to wheel treads, and it was also unreliable, as the application of brakes by guards depended upon them hearing and responding quickly to a whistle for brakes. This had become apparent from the trials on railway brakes carried out at Newark in the previous year, the chief types of solution were, The chain brake, such as the Heberlein brake, in which a chain was connected continuously along the train. As with car brakes, actuating pressure to apply brakes was transmitted hydraulically and these found some favor in the UK, but even in the UK problems were found with the water used as brake fluid freezing The Westinghouse air brake system. The Westinghouse system uses smaller air reservoirs and brake cylinders than the vacuum equipment. An ejector on the created a vacuum in a continuous pipe along the train. This system was very cheap and effective, but it had the weakness that it became inoperative if the train became divided or if the train pipe was ruptured. This system was similar to the vacuum system, except that the creation of vacuum in the train pipe exhausted vacuum reservoirs on every vehicle. If the driver applied the brake, his drivers brake valve admitted atmospheric air to the pipe. Being an automatic brake, this system applies braking effort if the train divided or if the train pipe is ruptured. Its disadvantage is that the vacuum reservoirs were required on every vehicle, and their bulk. Note, there are a number of variants and developments of all these systems, the Newark trials showed the braking performance of the Westinghouse air-brakes to be distinctly superior but for other reasons it was the vacuum system that was generally adopted on UK railways. Goods and mineral vehicles were provided with hand brakes by which the brakes could be applied by a lever operated by staff on the ground. Early goods vehicles had brake handles on one side only and random alignment of the vehicles gave the guard sufficient braking but, from about 1930 and these trains, not fitted with continuous brakes were described as unfitted trains and they survived in British practice until about 1985. By 1952 only 14% of open wagons, 55% of covered, in the early days of diesel locomotives, a purpose-built brake tender was attached to the locomotive to increase braking effort when hauling unfitted trains. The brake tender was low, so that the driver could see the line and signals ahead if the brake tender was propelled ahead of the locomotive

11.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide

12.
3 ft 6 in gauge railways
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Railways with a track gauge of 3 ft 6 in/​1,067 mm were first constructed as horse-drawn wagonways. From the mid-nineteenth century, the 3 ft 6 in gauge became widespread in the British Empire, there are approximately 112,000 kilometres of 1,067 mm gauge track in the world. 1795 One of the first railways to use 3 ft 6 in gauge was the Little Eaton Gangway in England, other 3 ft 6 in gauge wagonways in England and Wales were also built in the early nineteenth century. 1862 In 1862 the Norwegian engineer Carl Abraham Pihl constructed the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway in Norway,1865 In 1865 the Queensland Railways were constructed. Its 3 ft 6 in gauge was promoted by the Irish engineer Abraham Fitzgibbon,1868 In 1868 Charles Fox asks civil engineer Edmund Wragge to survey a 3 ft 6 in railway in Costa Rica. 1871 In 1871 the Canadian Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway,1872 In January 1872 Robert Fairlie advocated the use of 3 ft 6 in gauge in his book Railways Or No Railways, Narrow Gauge, Economy with Efficiency v. Broad Gauge, Costliness with Extravagance. 1872 also saw the opening of the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway in Japan,1873 On 1 January 1873, the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway was opened in New Zealand, constructed by the British firm John Brogden and Sons. Earlier built 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in and broad gauge railways were converted to the narrower gauge. Also in 1873 the Cape Colony adopted the 3 ft 6 in gauge, after conducting several studies in southern Europe, the Molteno Government selected the gauge as being the most economically suited for traversing steep mountain ranges. Beginning in 1873, under supervision of Railway engineer of the Colony William Brounger, the Cape Government Railways rapidly expanded and the gauge became the standard for southern Africa. 1876 Natal also converted its short 10 kilometres long Durban network from 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in broad gauge prior to commencing with construction of a network across the colony in 1876. Other new railways in Southern Africa, notably Mozambique, Bechuanaland, after 1876 In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century numerous 3 ft 6 in gauge tram systems were built in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In Sweden, the gauge was nicknamed Blekinge gauge, as most of the railways in the province of Blekinge had this gauge. An alternate name for this gauge, Cape gauge, is named after the Cape Colony in what is now South Africa, the term Cape Gauge is used in other languages, such as the Dutch kaapspoor, German Kapspur, Norwegian kappspor and French voie cape. After metrication in the 1960s, the gauge was referred to in official South African Railways publications as 1065 mm instead of 1067 mm, the gauge is sometimes referred to as CAP gauge, after C. A. The gauge name Colonial Gauge was used in New Zealand, in Australia the imperial term 3 foot 6 inch is used. In some Australian publications the term medium gauge is also used, in Japan 1,067 mm gauge is referred to as kyōki, which directly translates as narrow gauge. It is defined in metric units, Cape Government Railways Heritage railway List of track gauges Norwegian gauge controversy South African Trains – A Pictorial Encyclopaedia Why Did Japan Choose the 36 Narrow Gauge